New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says $33 million campaign fund not meant to scare off opponents

ALBANY >> Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday the $33.3 million in his re-election fund isn’t meant to scare off would-be opponents, maintaining he needs to be able to respond if someone rich tries to win the office by outspending him.

“You see that all of the time. You see some names bragging they have unlimited wealth,” Cuomo said in a radio interview. “And I need to be in a position to explain what we’ve done and we plan to do. That’s why we raise the money in the campaign.”

The 56-year-old Democrat also told public radio’s “Capitol Pressroom with Susan Arbetter” that there are politicians who can be bought but he’s not among them.

“At the end of the day you have your integrity, you have your reputation, you have your accomplishments, and the warmth and the satisfaction comes from knowing you did the right thing. And that’s how I operate,” he said. “And I don’t care if someone gave me a ton of money. It makes no difference.”

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He called for campaign finance reform to remedy what he called the “unseemly appearance” of money’s influence in New York politics. “Even if everyone was immune from the influence, the appearance is unsettling,” he said.

Donald Trump, who said he’d consider a run for New York governor if the state’s Republicans got behind him, is scheduled to attend a Jan. 31 party fundraiser in Erie County. Trump told The Buffalo News that he would commit $30 million to $50 million of his own money against Cuomo.

A government watchdog organization said Thursday its analysis of Cuomo’s campaign funds shows that 80 percent comes from donors who have each given a total of $10,000 or more. The New York Public Interest Research Group said that 242 donors have given the incumbent Democrat $40,000 or more, and his largest single donor is Leonard Litwin, a Manhattan real estate developer, who has contributed $800,000 in this election cycle.

Cuomo, who attended the Real Estate Board of New York’s annual banquet Thursday night in Manhattan, was asked Friday about raising money from what are considered traditionally Republican donors. He said he sees a schism among the Republicans, in New York and nationally, between conservatives and moderates who fear them.

He described “extreme conservatives” who he said are pro-assault weapons, against abortion and anti-gay. “They have no place in the state of New York, because that’s not who New Yorkers are,” he said. He noted that moderate Republicans who run the state Senate voted for New York’s tougher gun control law last year.

David Laska, spokesman for the state Republican Party, said its members are agreed on removing Cuomo from office this year. Two strong potential candidates have emerged — Trump and Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, who was re-elected in November despite a 2-to-1 Democratic enrollment advantage — which shows the race is winnable, he said.

Campaign finance reports show Astorino with $1 million in his campaign fund, including about $400,000 raised in the past several weeks.

“This isn’t a campaign that’s going to be about social issues,” Laska said. “This is a campaign about the fact that the state continues to bleed jobs and people and the governor’s going to answer for that record.”